Chaos Reading discussion

Great topic, Alan!

I loved this one from High-Rise by J.G. Ballard:
As he sat on his balcony eating the dog, Dr Robert Laing reflected on the unusual events that had taken place within this huge apartment building during the previous three months.
There is no way I'm going to see an opening sentence like that and not read the book!

I haven't read the book yet, but I did notice this opening line recently in If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino:
You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino’s new novel, If on a winter's night a traveler.
Intriguing!

This one's more of an opening paragraph, but it's pretty intense. This is from Idaho Winter by Tony Burgess:
His bedroom is a cramped and filthy box with dingy walls that sag slightly inward, shrinking the already miserable smallness. The floor is a mulch of papers and pine cones and pop cans. Hornets hover. It is a convenient garbage can for the other residents of the house. The yellow door opens enough for someone to toss in an empty bean can. The bedroom’s only window looks out onto a dirty orange brick wall. The bed consists of two tattered towels pulled over and under four ripped and rotting life vests. The fishy stench from the bed fills the room and nearly suffocates Idaho in his sleep. Poor little Idaho. He sits up and leans over and pukes onto the back of a fat sleeping mouse. The mouse doesn’t wake. Idaho watches as other mice emerge from under Styrofoam burger containers to pick his vomit off the rising and falling fur of the obese vermin. It is the first day of school and Idaho has to go outside for the first time since last June.

I guess the opening lines that work for me are those that are a bit startling and unexpected. I do like the unexpected :)

My three favorites:

"Call me Ishmael."

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times"

and

" I, Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus This-that-and-the-other (for I shall not trouble you yet with all my titles)...."

I bought 'Gone Girl' as an ebook. For some reason when I selected it the ebook opened to page 392. I thought I'd just read one of the catchiest first lines ever, but soon realized I'd actually just read the biggest spoiler ever. Here is "the great first line that wasn't" (you REALLY don't want to read it if you haven't read 'Gone Girl' yet) : (view spoiler)[I still have Desi’s semen inside me from the last time he raped me, so the medical examination goes fine.<\i> (hide spoiler)]

One of my favorite actual first lines is from Riddley Walker, also one of my favorite books. It was the inspiration for the middle story in Cloud Atlas.

"On my naming day when I come 12 I gone front spear and kilt a wyld boar he parbly ben the las wyld pig on the Bundel Downs any how there hadnt ben none for a long time befor him nor I aint looking to see none agen."

Adam wrote: "Whitney wrote: "Here is "the great first line that wasn't" (you REALLY don't want to read it if you haven't read 'Gone Girl' yet) :"

Thanks for that. Now I know not to go there..."

But that isn't really the first line! (What follows isn't really too spoilery, but marking it just in case (view spoiler)[ And, let me add that it isn't really indicative of the book as a whole. I'm not a big fan of that particular type of subject matter, but I'm really enjoying 'Gone Girl' (hide spoiler)].

Whitney wrote: "One of my favorite actual first lines is from Riddley Walker, also one of my favorite books. It was the inspiration for the middle story in Cloud Atlas.

"On my naming day when I come 12 I gone fr..."

I loved that book too. That reminds me of another first line I loved (although I hated the rest of the book), from The Knife of Never Letting Go:
The first thing you find out when yer dog learns to talk is that dogs don't got nothing much to say.
About anything.
"Need a poo, Todd."
"Shutup, Manchee."
"Poo. Poo, Todd."
"I said shut it.”

I didn't read the Gone Girl spoiler, as I'm about 60% through and LOVING the book so far. No spoilers for Ruby! Thanks for tagging it :)

Here are a few of my favorites. I must have a thing for clean, strong and to the point openings.

It was a pleasure to burn. —Ray Bradbury,Fahrenheit 451. (I just enjoy the strong, simple opening that sets the book perfectly).

There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it. —C.S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. (This first sentence is just pure fun).

All this happened, more or less. —Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five. (Nothing really given about the plot in this one, but we do learn that our narrator may not be completely reliable).

Mother died today. —Albert Camus, The Stranger. (Strong and to the point. Simply perfect).

"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed." The Gunslinger - Stephen King

So simple, to the point and straight into the action. Love it!

No one would have believed in the early years of the 21st century that our world was being watched by intelligences greater than our own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns, *they* observed and studied, the way a man with a microscope might scrutinize the creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacency, men went to and fro about the globe, confident of our empire over this world. Yet across the gulf of space, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic regarded our planet with envious eyes and slowly, and surely, drew their plans against us.

Just love how it made my skin crawl.

Joe wrote: "No one would have believed in the early years of the 21st century that our world was being watched by intelligences greater than our own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns,..."

Dum Dum DAH!

Sorry. The Jeff Wayne thing is hard-coded into my brain. :)
That reminds me - it must be just about time for my annual listen..

Ruby wrote: "Joe wrote: "No one would have believed in the early years of the 21st century that our world was being watched by intelligences greater than our own; that as men busied themselves about their vario..."

Oooh waaa!

"Annual listen"? I missed it for years when I only had it on vinyl. Now it's on my media server and listened to regularly.

Derek wrote: "Ruby wrote: "Joe wrote: "No one would have believed in the early years of the 21st century that our world was being watched by intelligences greater than our own; that as men busied themselves abou..."

It's like my biennial DS9 marathon. It needs to be savoured.

I just saw this first line in a synopsis:
A man called Berg, who changed his name to Greb, came to a seaside town intending to kill his father.
From Berg

Whitney wrote: "I bought 'Gone Girl' as an ebook. For some reason when I selected it the ebook opened to page 392. I thought I'd just read one of the catchiest first lines ever, but soon realized I'd actually just..."

Ahah! As I was reading the last parts of the book, I was trying to guess which line you'd posted. I didn't guess that one! There were quite a few first lines of chapters towards the end which would have been amazing openers to a book!